It's a dull, dreary day at the farmette. Almost mid-September, which is both hard to believe given that time passes so quickly and extraordinarily easy to explain, given that the pandemic is slogging on into its fourth wave.
I had an eventful week last week, having received a laser treatment for my eyes and new glasses! Gotta say, getting older brings out the weaknesses of the body but modern technology is mostly pretty cool at helping fix them.
Anyhow, I also gave blood on Friday evening. It's something I've been doing since my twenties, and luckily, can still do. I also volunteer to provide some social media promotions for the Canadian Blood Service for this area. It's not much, but I think it helps.
Above is the Knights of Columbus facility in Walkerton where they set up the clinic. At dance halls, and legions and community centres across the country, these mobile clinics set up, do their business and tear down with great efficiency. The team at our clinics come all the way from Barrie to take blood from the locals. To the right is the package I received after my initial intake. I take that to the chair, and the nurse who will take the donation.
Since the pandemic hit, the clinic at the Legion in Hanover where I usually go has been closed because its a bit too tiny to accommodate all the distancing. That's ok. Walkerton's only another five or so minutes along Highway 4, so no biggie.
Gotta say, the pandemic has meant a lot of terrible things to a lot of people, but it has produced some efficiencies - including giving blood.
Now, I have to make an appointment and I fill out the questionnaire online. I receive a Q-pass on my iPhone CBS app that the intake nurse swipes and voila - she has my medical history. No waiting for my turn like the old days - when I'd take a book along and read a couple or three (or four if it was busy) chapters before I was up.
Everything is clean, efficient and the staff are always friendly and grateful for my contribution. Of course, masking is mandatory and there's lots of sanitizing of chairs and equipment after every donation.
The nurse who took my blood (can't remember her name, but she was lovely), told my that it took 8 minutes and 14 seconds for me to fill the bag. Which is okay, but I've done better.
The intake nurse was new, a trainee who had to vet all her actions with her supervisor, so the whole appointment took a bit longer than usual - still, it was less than an hour. Seems like a small sacrifice when you're helping save lives.
Today is voting day for the Harris-Wilson-Wilson-Harris family. We always go to the advanced polls to avoid lineups - with which neither Rob nor I have ever had any patience. Here's hoping we get at least a functional federal government out of all this. We're gonna need it.
Until next week.